[March 20, 2014]The Lincoln Historic
Preservation Commission met Tuesday evening in the city council
chambers. Several items were carried over from the February session,
and two new items were brought up.

Two examples of landmark plaques were passed around, one bearing the
image of a historic building in black and white with an explanation
of the building's history. The second plaque was a metal oval that
denotes historic designation, a design that is currently used in
Lincoln.

The commission members seemed to prefer that the building
represented on the first plaque design be in color rather than black and
white. The members also decided to offer both options to a historic
building owner, although the final form of the plaque still needs
some additional work.

In addition, a unique logo for the Historic Preservation
Commission still needs to be designed. It will be placed on the
final design of the plaque.

The commission is still in favor of presenting a workshop for
homeowners toward the end of April or first part of May. The
workshop would be on a Saturday morning and would feature speakers who
could assist owners of historic buildings with historical
research on their building. The workshop would also include
assistance to owners in applying for historic designation and offer ideas
from building owners who have restored their property to those
owners planning a restoration.

The final business of the meeting included suggestions by John
Lebegue, Lincoln building and safety director. He suggested that a
historic building owner who proposes a cosmetic or like-kind repair
to a building would not have to go to the full commission for
review.

Lebegue, citing his experience as commissioner of building
and zoning of the village of Riverside, suggested that this type
of repair could be introduced to a subcommittee composed of only
three members of the preservation commission. A unanimous vote
of the three would be necessary to approve the like-kind change.
This type of subcommittee would also be appropriate with a
change to the notice of hearing time. It was suggested that 48
hours would be sufficient. The Lincoln city attorney would be
consulted on this matter. Major repairs or changes would still
have to appear before the entire commission. It was thought that
the subcommittee would streamline the approval process for minor
repairs.

Lebegue also brought up the time period for the commission to
give their decision to a building owner on a proposed change.
Currently, the commission has 35 days to announce a decision on an
"Application of Appropriateness." It was thought that the 35-day
timeline in some instances would not be feasible due to meeting
timing. The commission decided that the wording should be changed to
"as soon as possible but not more than 60 days." This change
in the
historic preservation ordinance would be vetted by the Lincoln city
attorney, Blinn Bates, before the change is made.